


As They Kiss Consume

by forthemyoui



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, spur of the moment who knows if I'll continue this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-01-29 12:02:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12630648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forthemyoui/pseuds/forthemyoui
Summary: College hermit and self-professed lazy introvert Momo serendipitously gets chosen to be Jeongyeon's stand-in for the college production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. She is, as a result, forced to get closer to her cast-mate, who happens to be the most inscrutable and intimidating figure at school.





	1. She's At Least a Succubus

“Sana, this is bad.”

“You’ve run out of coupons for the place that has five-spice  _jokbal_.”

“No.”

“You’ve run out of coupons for the place that has double chocolate-chip cookies.”

“Also no, but stop making me think about things like that. It makes me feel like the world is ending and the feeling from that is scary.”

“None of those things? Baffling. Hmm… Jeongyeon came back and said she lied, sex with you actually  _wasn’t_ great.”

“No!”

“I’m out of ideas,” Sana finally says, “what’s happened?”

“Sana, Jeongyeon blackmailed me.”

Sana gasps. “I’m on my way with the police. I knew it was an abusive relationship you two were in.”

“ _No_! Also, we were together for like a week! It was a mistake! Stop making it bigger than it was!”

“Okay, okay, explain yourself.”

“What I meant was, she guilt-tripped me into replacing her for one of the show dates for her play. She has like… a basketball competition or something,” Momo wails into the phone. “She said ‘on account of our friendship’ and stuff like that and I felt guilty and sentimental.”

Sana gasps again. “Think of the children.”

Momo pauses. “The what?”

“Sorry, I meant the theatre-goers. I just… I just wonder whether refunds are available.”

“Sana!” Momo protests. “But… yeah. I’m really nervous about that too. I’ve never acted in… anything, my pronunciation is going to be horrible, it’s an archaic piece, _and_ they didn’t audition me because the director said he ‘trusted Jeongyeon’s judgment and creative vision.”

Momo can hear Sana thinking through the phone.

“Well, I mean, it’s not that bad, is it? You don’t do very much in school anyway. In this way, Jeongyeon’s pro-activeness in after-school activities has sort of forced you to come out of your hermit shell.”

Momo narrows her eyes and Sana can feel it over the phone. “You don’t do very much either. You’re not in anything, aside from the Japanese society, and all you do there is drink tea and talk about cute new Japanese girl groups.”

“Actually,” Sana says, “I’m in cheerleading now. And coach is calling us over, so got to go, Momo.”

“What? Since when were you-”

“Since the marching band got a cute new baton twirler,” Sana responds quickly and then signs off. “See you in class tomorrow!”

Momo listens to the dial tone for two seconds before letting herself slide down the ceiling-to-floor mirror in the dance studio, phone slipping out of her hand. Has she truly been so inactive in college? The cut of a quiet, lonely, clumsy figure moving through classes?

As Momo stares at the ceiling, the lights to the studio automatically turn themselves off and the hum of the air-conditioning, previously invisible, ceases, making the silence loud. Electricity always shuts off a few minutes after a booking is over, and Momo realises she’s spent most of her time panicking over the crumpled script in her left hand and briefly consulting Sana on her predicament rather than spending her booked time productively. Usually she’d get tons of choreography work and practice done in the studio, but today since she booked it specifically for script practice, she’s done absolutely nothing.

Momo tells herself she can lie down in the dark for just another minute more, getting slightly sticky in the room that’s getting warmer by the second. But then the lights flip on again and Momo blinks hard.  _Shit_. There must be another booking for this place and-

The room door opens, and Momo is so spent and paralysed on the ground that she only lifts her head, back still glued to the ground. Of course, the effect of this is that she gets an exceptionally unflattering double-chin just as the student who booked the studio makes their entrance.

 _Oh, great_.

“Hi, Mina,” Momo says, tightly smiling and trying to get off the ground.

“Hey Momo,” Mina says, face calm as usual but corners of her mouth almost turning up at the sight of a sweaty Momo on the ground. “Were you practising?”

Momo tries her best to crumple up the script in her hand, shoving it behind her. “Uh, yeah.”

“When will you be in for practice?” Mina asks, looking far more presentable in a red plaid shirt and clutching a black sling-bag; she has a cup of coffee in her other hand, one decorated with cute Christmas designs.

“Hmm?” Momo says, not thinking about what Mina is saying at all.

“For practice,” Mina repeats, “for the play? Jeongyeon told me that you were her replacement for one of the show dates? So I thought you’d be coming in for some of the rehearsals.”

Momo produces a folded show ticket from her pocket. A few food receipts get pulled out in the process and Momo scrambles to shove those back into her pocket. She looks at the date, remembering that when Jeongyeon asked her to support her appearance a month ago, Momo had, by some stroke of luck, picked the very date that would be the date for her appearance as Jeongyeon’s Romeo.

“I- yeah,” Momo says. “The director hasn’t given me the schedule yet, but I got the script, so I’m just in the beginning stages of practising it on my own first.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine,” Mina says quietly. “Have confidence.”

Momo recalls Mina’s stellar performances in their acting module, internally winces remembering this default allocation of elective, remembers wondering at how Mina somehow produces daring, well-articulated, and serious dramatic performances even though she’s usually reserved and untalkative outside of classes. Momo belatedly remembers that Mina skipped a grade in Japan and is younger than her and Sana by a year, and winces harder.

“I’ll try,” Momo says meekly.

“Well, if you ever need to run lines,” Mina says, “I’ll be here.”

At this, Mina bends down to where Momo is seated on the floor, takes Momo’s ticket from her hand, and whips out a pen to scribble down her number on the back of the ticket. Momo sees the flash of Mina’s name on the cast list featured on the ticket, remembers she forgot to worry about who opposite she would be acting, finally processes that it’s probably going to be Mina and… some other people she should really get to know.

“Isn’t this the date on which you’ll be standing in for Jeongyeon?” Mina asks, eyebrows scrunched together.

“Yes,” Momo says sheepishly. “Just… bad luck I guess.”

“It’s a good memento,” Mina comments.

Momo looks at Mina’s neat handwriting and thinks  _I guess it now is?_

“Oh, sorry, you must have something on,” Momo comes to her senses finally. “Sorry for taking up your time. I’ll go now.”

“It’s okay,” Mina says seriously, “I’m just here to practise dance.”

Momo’s eyes widen.

“Yeah,” Mina says, “I’m taking the contemporary dance elective this semester.”

“Oh. I’m in that too.”

Mina almost smiles. “I know. It’s part of the reason I decided to take it.”

Something inside Momo breaks just out of shock, and that something also pieces itself back together in a moment of confusion. Myoui Mina, dark princess of the entire college, the figure of mystery, the student of academic miracles and various scholarly feats, just said that Momo was part of the reason she’s chosen to take a class.

“Oh,” Momo squeaks out eloquently, “cool. Cool!”

“Cool,” Mina repeats and begins to shrug off her red plaid shirt, revealing a white tank top underneath.

“Practise well,” Momo says weakly as she gathers her things and disappears out of the dance studio.

She tries to smooth out the folded ticket all the way from the college building back to her room in the hostel, reciting what lines she’d learnt in the time she’d used productively as well, as if repeating a mantra, some sort of distracting shield against the new stresses of this semester.  _Everything is so new._

Momo resigns herself to flipping through her art philosophy textbook and cringing at all of the headaches it generates. For some reason these headaches get more and more comforting. They’re a good escape from the real headaches of the world. She breaks apart a pair of disposable chopsticks, boils some water, and then reads while eating noodles. She barely blinks at the sight of Sana walking across the hostel courtyard with someone next to her.

At nine, Momo thinks it suitable to check her emails. She does that once a week, which is probably not the recommended frequency for a college student in her second year. She realises the gravity of that ascetic’s approach to official communications when she sees that the faculty director of the school play has emailed her twice on next week’s schedule - oh, and also on that she’ll do a line read for her tomorrow.

 _Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck_.

She probably has to call Mina after all. She wasn’t going to, initially. Momo couldn’t and still can’t quite imagine anyone actually having Myoui Mina’s number. It doesn’t seem like Mina uses her phone for communicating with people. Sometimes Momo spots Mina gaming on her phone (pretty skilfully, for the record) before lectures because Mina makes it a point to get there early and Momo is always sleeping in lecture halls between lectures anyway. But Mina doesn’t seem to use that device created for communication to talk to actual people, it seems. Mina’s a little intimidating for various reasons, not the least her apparently cold expression, seeming unwillingness to talk to others, and the way she seems to have every part of her college life put together and done well. But at the same time, Momo feels like she’s seen glimpses of Mina that must be alien to the rest of the school population, specifically of Mina pouting over failing a game level, actually making a sound when she forgets to save her progress, or of Mina smiling very stupidly at a bowl of seaweed soup in the hostel cafeteria. No one actually believes Momo about the last one (“Myoui Mina  _smiling_?! You’re hallucinating.”).

After fishing out the ticket again, keying in the number three times to make sure she didn’t get it wrong the first two times, Momo doesn’t press call. She more of spills her cup of noodles while spinning around on her swivel chair at her desk, tries to catch the mess in her hands, and ends up with soup broth soaking her college sweatshirt and also her thumb pressing the call button.

Momo tries to end the call, but her hands are wet and greasy now and it’s all she can do to hold the phone between her shoulder and face for the sake of politeness and scurries to the small bathroom adjacent to her room, attempting to pull the sweatshirt off her torso.

Mina picks up after the fifth ring.

“Hey,” Mina says, sounding exhausted; she’s panting from something.

“Were you still practising?” Momo asks.

“Uh, yeah,” Mina says, “just got to get this thing right. There’s a practical assessment next week.”

“I know,” Momo says, unsurprised by how late Mina works in preparation for her upcoming assessments but impressed all the same; Momo usually practises this late for dance too but it’s because she loses track of time, and dance is all she loves to do anyway. “So, about lines…?”

“Yeah, we can run through them,” Mina says.

“Oh, okay, great!” Momo says in relief. “Sorry, but I just checked my email and the director wants to meet me for a line read tomorrow and I know this is  _super_ last minute, but-”

“No, no, it’s good,” Mina says, and Momo’s still not sure she can discern Mina’s tone because they haven’t spoken all that much aside from professional talk when handling module projects or through some other people, “I needed a break from this anyway.”

At this point Momo manages to get her sweatshirt off her body. She begins slapping water onto her skin when there’s a rapping on the door. She goes to open it and keeps Mina on the phone.

Momo stares at Sana, half-naked and forgetting to cover herself, just in a white bra and her sleep shorts, and holding her phone away from her.

“I’m a little busy,” Momo says.

Sana looks surprised, but delighted for some reason. “Oh, are you?”

“Give me a second, Mina,” Momo says briefly.

“Oh,” Sana says, eyes widening further and she nodding as if she’s made some new and interesting observations. “ _Oh_.”

“Yeah, talk tomorrow,” Momo says, oblivious, to Sana and closes the door in her best friend’s face.

“Uh, so as I was saying,” Mina says as soon as Momo puts her phone back to her ear and says ‘hello’ to tell Mina she’s back, “I’d like to get back to my room first, and then I’ll run lines with you through the phone.”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Momo says, “I mean, I’m kind of wet and half-naked right now anyway, so I need some time to sort that out too.”

There is a pause on the other end.

“You what?”

“Uh- oh- it isn’t what it sounds like,” Momo stammers, a realisation regarding Sana’s reaction just now suddenly crashing upon her. “I’m just messy, is all. Call me back when you’re free.”

Momo doesn’t wait for Mina’s answer and puts down the phone, thoroughly embarrassed. She stares at herself in the mirror, almost laughs out loud at her own stupidity, and then decides she might as well shower now. Hopefully she’ll be quick enough to be out by the time Mina calls her back.

Turns out she sort of is and sort of isn’t, because Mina calls her back when Momo steps out in her towel.

“So, are you fully clothed now?”

Is Mina… joking with her?  _Mina jokes with people? Is that a thing?_ Momo doesn’t quite know how to respond.

“Sadly, no,” Momo says, noting her own self-deprecating joke, “because I just stepped out of the shower. Give me a minute while I change.”

Momo sets her phone on the bed, the call still ongoing, as she slips into her pyjamas and hastily attempts to dry her dripping hair with her towel. She fetches her script from the table, picks up her phone again, and jumps into bed.

“Okay, so have at it,” Mina instructs her.

“Just like that?”

“Yeah.”

Well, she isn’t about to disobey the advice of she who seems to be acing their acting module right now. After clearing her throat self-consciously, she goes for something in the second act, a key monologue. It’s a formulaic reading, she knows, but she tries to emphasise what she thinks should be emphasised and gives the monologue the oomph she thinks is appropriate.

After it’s over, Mina doesn’t say anything and there is a pregnant pause between them. Momo rubs the corner of her ducky pyjama shirt between her thumb and index finger and stares into the dark, worrying into the silence.

“Was it that bad?”

“It really wasn’t,” Mina says.

“Are you just saying that?”

“No,” Mina says, but her voice sounds a little confused.

“What is it?” Momo says.

“How much did Jeongyeon brief you on her part for the play?” Mina asks tentatively, as if looking to confirm a certain hypothesis.

“Uh, nothing, basically. She’s in Japan for the international quarter-finals right now, so she literally just tossed me an extra script. She’ll be elsewhere for the finals, probably, which is why I’m standing in for her.”

“Right, okay, so she told you nothing at all? And do you know anything about the play?”

“I know what  _Romeo and Juliet_ is,” Momo says, “it’s difficult in Korean, definitely, but I’m managing. I took a class in Korean literature and archaic language once.”

“Hmm, I meant with regard to  _our_ play.”

“Nothing, really. I only heard from Jeongyeon a month ago, to get tickets to the performance.”

“Okay,” Mina finally says. “That explains it.”

“Explains what?”

“Why you were reading for my part.”

Momo lets her confusion leak into the dead air. “Sorry, what?”

“You were reading a Romeo monologue on the death of Tybalt in Act Two?” Mina confirms. “I have my lines memorised, so I think that was it.”

“Uh, yeah,” Momo says. “Mina, isn’t Jeongyeon playing the part of Romeo?”

Mina snorts over the phone. “What made you think she was playing that part?”

 _Probably that Jeongyeon seems like the type to never let someone top her in public_ , Momo wants to say, but settles for mumbling ‘oh, she just seemed like the Romeo type, what with the short hair and all’.

“Well,” Mina says, “she’s playing the role of Juliet.”

“Oh,” Momo says, “w-well, cool. Okay. Sure, just have to… practise a different role for tomorrow.”

Mina finally laughs over the phone.  _Oh, God, no one will believe me when I tell them that Myoui Mina laughed over the phone at something I said_.

“Sure, I’ll help you as much as I can.”

So they rehearse lines until the sun comes up. At some point Momo pauses to plug her phone into her charger, confirms that Mina has a good phone plan, and Mina says she’ll go wash up and stuff but she’ll still listen to Momo on speaker-phone. And then at six Mina falls asleep and Momo thanks her profusely.

* * *

 **** “So I heard you’re sleeping with the devil,” Nayeon says as soon as Momo sits down at their usual table.

Momo gives her a look, and then turns to Sana.

“To be fair,” Sana says, “she’s at least a succubus. I mean, she’s hot, and she’s really pretty, and she has an alluring gaze-”

“Sorry, I thought you were into a ‘cute new baton twirler in marching band’?” Momo reminds Sana as she sets down her metal tray and begins scooping large spoonfuls of her rice into her mouth.

“Yeah, but I’m not  _blind_ ,” Sana says, folding her arms over her checkered dress and rolling her eyes. “Anyway, tell us what happened last night. Did you sign away your soul to Tzuyu? How long do you have to live?”

“I wasn’t with Mina last night,” Momo explains through a large mouthful of food. “We were on the phone and she was helping with lines.”

“Right, she’s your Juliet,” Sana says.

“No, she’s technically Romeo,” Jihyo supplies, finally looking up from her statistics textbook, “and not one more bad word about Tzuyu before I smack one of you.”

Sana wiggles her eyebrows and places her hands under her chin as she moves closer to Jihyo. “Ooh, protective Mama Bear.”

“Please don’t say that about me and my girlfriend,” Jihyo says stonily as she carries on with her reading.

Sana merely shrugs and turns back to Momo. “So you didn’t get with her?”

Momo almost chokes on the rice and pickled anchovies. Her entire fist slams into her bowl of clear beansprout soup and a large portion of it gets onto the table, and a bit onto her hoodie. She frowns at it but prioritises telling Sana ‘no’ in a vehement manner.

Just at this moment, Mina glides past, elegant as usual but markedly more visibly tired than she would normally be. She picks up her bowl of soup from her tray and sets it down on Momo’s table.

“Be careful next time,” Mina says, voice a little husky, and she walks off.

“For Mina’s level of contact with people,” Sana remarks, “that was basically third base.”

Momo tries not to slam her hand into her new bowl of soup and reserves that smack for Sana instead. Sana ducks out of the way, and then conveniently spots a cute junior sitting down a few tables across, and excuses herself. Momo sighs in partial relief.

“Well, I’m glad you’re not sleeping with one of the devil’s underlings,” Nayeon says, stealing food from Momo’s plate.

Jihyo eyes her long-time friend. “One more word-”

“Okay, okay.”

* * *

During theory class for their acting module, the professor calls on Mina to answer a question like he does during every class, except this time Mina screws up and gives something totally off, and she isn’t even able to play it off well. She’s clearly a bit off-kilter. Momo realises she probably didn’t have time to do the readings for this class.  _Shit_.

Mina makes eye contact with her after the screw-up. The class is clearly a little taken aback, but most students are probably mainly comforted by the fact that Mina is probably still human after all. Momo tries her best to give Mina an apologetic look, but Mina just shrugs it off and seems to mouth ‘it’s okay’ while smiling very briefly. Somehow that tugs at her heart, seeing Mina in a non-perfectionist mode and also… sacrificing participation points to help her out with a line-reading session.

On the other side of the lecture theatre, Nayeon makes the ‘I’m watching you’ hand gesture and then that somehow evolves into Nayeon staring at her own hand and admiring it. Momo scratches her head at that and looks back down as she always does in this class, hoping to never be called on by the professor.

Fortunately, for her, the lecture doesn’t drag on for as long as she thought it would, but that also means she’s inching closer and closer to the dreaded part of her day - the line-reading session in the late afternoon. She thumbs the now-tatty corners of her script underneath her table and recites the  _new_ lines, the lines  _Juliet_ has in the play.  _I’ll be just fine_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (casual shrug) wanted something cute and less heteronormative and this appeared


	2. Technically, They Weren't Supposed to be Dancing

It was four days into the next week and the first rehearsal for which Momo would be in attendance. She had memorised her lines like she memorised a dance routine and, admittedly rather embarrassingly, spent much time clinging to her bed wailing about her terrible, dastardly, 14-year old self’s fate.

“Right, Momo, here,” Ms. Song motioned to throw the studio keys over to Momo, but Momo waved her hands quickly to signal ‘no’.

“Not staying late to practise?” Ms. Song asked quizzically. “Finally giving yourself a break?”

Momo clutched the opening of her bag so that her mess of scripts wouldn’t be visible to the casual observer. She nodded hesitantly.

“That’s good,” Ms. Song decided, pleasantly surprised. “Go get the rest you need.”

Momo made an unearthly sound and swallowed, bolting out of the dance studio. She hadn’t told anyone else about her role as Juliet in the college production and this basically set a precedent for her not doing that in the future either. She didn’t even know if she could act yet.

 _You’re doing well_ , the director had said, _that is, if you were more expressive and less jittery with your delivery, you would be doing well. Go practise. We’ll see you Thursday._

Momo had sweated a bucket and cried some more from that. Thankfully she got back to her room in time to stress-eat a bag of crackers and text Mina to tell her that _everything went really well_ and _thank you so much for your help_ and Mina had replied _I’m looking forward to seeing you at rehearsal_. Of course that had gotten her heart beating terribly fast and she wolfed down a soda and another bag of crackers in that same evening.

For the first part of rehearsal, Momo got to see the main actors at work. Jinyoung was playing Benvolio. _Nice but bland, that one. Good choice._ A senior, Heechul, was playing Mercutio. Momo had never met him before, but he seemed to have been born for the role, both intelligent, witty, and provocative in his out-of-character adlibs (for which he was later reprimanded). Taecyeon was playing Tybalt, and managed to turn his typically goofy expression into a suitably deplorable one of perpetual contempt. A girl called Dahyun was playing the nurse, and she was appropriately melodramatic and hilarious even though she looked a bit young for the part.

It was half an hour into rehearsal when Momo realised that only Romeo’s part was being played by someone of the other sex. She could definitely see why Mina would have won the part in spite of that seeming diadvantage (whether it was that depended on the overall ethic and casting protocol of the production team), though.

Mina clutched at Jinyoung’s chest, shaking him by his shirt and professed her love for a faraway Rosaline, who she so desperately wanted to see. She looked perfectly like a foolish boy infatuated with some unknowable person. When she ran her fingers through her hair and placed her weight on one leg, putting her hand on her hip, Momo almost swooned. She supposed that’s what audiences had to feel - sympathy for and healthy disapproval of Romeo’s immature state of mind while simultaneously being taken by his natural charm.

Momo remembered to keep her eyes on Jeongyeon, as Jeongyeon’s understudy. Jeongyeon was doing well. She was less fiery-headed than usual but equally naggy. She’d interplayed her usually agitated spirit with one of calm composure, and that made her performance a laudable one.

During the break after two hours of rehearsal, Jeongyeon came to Momo, sweaty and attempting to smother Momo in after-rehearsal stickiness.

“I was pretty good, eh?” Jeongyeon shoved Momo’s shoulder.

“How can you be so _crass_ afterwards?” Momo said, incredulous. “Who cast you?”

Jeongyeon rolled her eyes. “I’m great at playing an intelligent but lovesick girl. What can I say? I know that type of girl well.”

Momo mock-vomited. “This is literally the worst persona you’ve put on. You were so nervous asking me out the first time. And you almost hurled before telling us about your first-ever crush during that game of truth-or-dare. You also panic your way out of actually engaging the few girls that do line up for you.”

Jeongyeon reddened and looked sheepish but slapped Momo on the shoulder again. “Stop exposing me. Now, what do you think? Manageable? Can you get up to speed?”

“Uh, well, the movements haven’t been coordinated-”

“Blocking,” Jeongyeon filled in.

“Right, the blocking work hasn’t been done, so I think as long as I get some practise with the actors I can try to work out chemistry and then we can do blocking at the same pace,” Momo said, twiddling her thumbs. “I think it’ll be okay.”

Mina plopped down next to Jeongyeon with a towel around her neck and an isotonic drink in her hand. Momo watched Mina swallow a mouthful of the beverage and a stray drop run down Mina’s throat. She coughed and looked away.

“So,” Mina said, “think you can keep up?”

Momo shrugged uselessly, shuffling her feet on the ground beneath the bench. “Maybe.”

“Why so unconfident?” Mina asked. “Show me the passion from your Romeo reading at night.”

Momo bit her lip at the teasing. “Stop that. I made a wrong assumption _once_.”

“She thought she’d be playing Romeo,” Mina explained to Jeongyeon.

Jeongyeon laughed and shook her head. “Nah, no one can compete with this one for the role.”

“I know,” Momo said emphatically. “How do so many expressions move across one face?”

Mina shrugged, her expressions more muted after she’d gotten off the proverbial stage. “I think it just comes to you when you’re in a comfortable environment and in the groove and spirit of the play.”

Jeongyeon put an arm around Mina’s shoulder. “Cast outing this weekend. Did Jinyoung tell you?”

“Oh,” Mina said, thinking for a moment. “I don’t think I’m free.”

“Aww, you never make it to our outings,” Jeongyeon complained gently.

“I have work to catch up on,” Mina said, shrugging.

“Right, you already have a mentor attachment,” Jeongyeon said. “Stellar student Myoui Mina still needs to get out and let loose a bit, you know.”

Mina nodded. “I’ll see if I can free up time and update you, okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Hirai Momo,” director Shin boomed, re-entering the rehearsal studio. “You’re up. We’ll just do scenes with Juliet. Actors on standby for the first meeting at the Capulet party.”

Momo breathed unevenly while a gruff Lord Capulet and Tybalt argued among themselves, Mina all the while staring at her intently some metres away, upstage. As the relatives finished their brawl, Mina naturally moved downstage, as if she had already blocked the scene in her mind. Somehow, Momo found herself moving with Mina.

“My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss,” Mina delivered the line like an intensely eager and somewhat charming young boy; she scooped an arm underneath Momo’s back and brought Momo’s hand up with hers.

Technically, they weren’t supposed to be dancing. It was just a line run. Nobody really knew what dance was fitting for a ball in Shakespeare’s time. But they had learned the waltz in one of their exploratory dance modules, and although Momo had learnt the other part, she tried to move in tandem with Mina.

“Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this; for saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss,” Momo said, nearly breathless.

What was coming out of Momo’s mouth was a long stream of the right lines, delivered increasingly passionately. Mina’s gaze was just… shittily distracting and at first a huge hindrance, but eventually Momo slipped into her character and matched Mina’s energy and mood, and then Mina was just Romeo, and reacting in whatever way was just Juliet. Of course there would be breaks where Momo would be rendered weak from Mina’s charming and earnest exhortations, but she seemed to remind herself of her role in time to return to a stern and stoic rendition of Juliet.

What was going through Momo’s mind was a slightly different story. If one placed a recording device into the deep recesses of Momo’s head, aside from the usual ‘I’m hungry!’ one would also hear ‘fuck, fuck, fuck, is this the line?’ and also ‘wow, what, smooth’ and ‘can Romeo be this pretty?’

Within the hour, they had arrived at their deathbed, Mina’s hand strong on the small of her back and fist around the fabric of her shirt, before Mina’s mouth ghosted over her lips, she delivered a few more lines, and then promptly killed herself.

As soon as the final line was delivered, Momo felt like a spell had just been broken. The background noises in the studio seeped back into her reality and it felt more awkward and real than before, when she had been thoroughly invested in making sure Romeo wasn’t making the worst decisions, her cousin wasn’t always trying to kill her beloved, and her father wasn’t always trying to violate her sense of agency as a woman in the world.

“Much better than the first line read,” the director said, clapping. “I barely had to intervene.”

Momo had barely registered his fleeting interventions as well.

“I really liked,” the director said, a hand to his chin, “that you moved erratically between being a lovesick fool and a stern, intelligent, disciplined young woman. It really gives us a realistic look into Juliet’s psyche. You don’t see it if it isn’t externalised and _performed_ , you see.”

“Th-thanks,” Momo said.

“And Mina, the physicality of it was good,” the director continued. “I like it when my actors get their bodies into it too. It shows me how into your character you are. You also wouldn’t get those guttural sounds of anger or frustration or desperation if you didn’t have your stomach muscles tight and your chests close. That’s precisely the sort of thing I want to see. The body is part of the performance. I’m glad you’re thinking about this before we even progress to blocking and body work.”

“Thank you,” Mina said calmly. “I’ll take more note of it.”

“The chemistry was good, overall,” the director remarked. “I can feel that sort of mutual fascination and intense attraction. Jeongyeon probably needs to loosen up to show it a bit more.”

Jeongyeon nodded, “got it.”

“Let’s give a round of our applause to our new cast member,” the director said. “It’s apparently her first time, but she’s a natural.”

Momo blushed and resisted the urge to squeeze her own cheeks to hide the blush as the room erupted in both polite and sincerely enthusiastic applause. She bowed multiple times, awkward. When she looked back up, Mina was smiling and the last one to stop clapping.

“Right, go get some rest everyone. We’ll convene to begin blocking work next Monday.”

Momo was two times as sweaty as when she had surfaced from dance practice. She threw her own towel over her shoulder and smiled back at Jeongyeon when Jeongyeon squeezed her tight and ruffled her hair.

“I knew you’d do well,” Mina said, very slightly smug, as they walked down the hallway to the elevator.

“I knew you’d eventually get comfortable, but you’re fitting into the role amazingly really quickly,” Jeongyeon said. “I kind of roped you into it because I thought it’d help with self-confidence and speaking up more often, but you just kind of do a good performance with the full range of emotion and then slip instantly back into shy-and-ditzy immediately after.”

“Well, it’s acting,” Mina shrugged. “I haven’t become ten times more reckless and energetic after taking up this role.”

“That might be because Romeo isn’t a hundred percent likeable,” Momo joked.

“Right on the head,” Mina responded, “I roll my eyes at myself every three minutes for the first part of the performance, and then I get right into character and only have like a terrible Romeo hangover after the run is over.”

Jeongyeon nodded. “Yeah, Juliet’s wily and smart with her words. For me it’s more of ‘how did she think of such a play on words?!!!’ in my head while I do my runs.”

“I had to research like ninety percent of the puns she makes,” Momo said. “And I process them a bit before delivering them. But yeah, no self-hatred when playing Juliet. Guess it comes with the right choice of the less impulsive character.”

“You didn’t even get to pick your role, but good for both of you, I guess,” Mina said, rolling her eyes gently. “I can’t believe I’ll have to kiss _two_ unbearable people.”

Momo actually choked at that, but thankfully Jeongyeon speaking up masked Momo’s overt signs of distress.

“Hey, people would die to kiss me!” Jeongyeon protested.

Mina shook her head. “If you ran a kissing booth at our annual college carnival, no one would queue up for it.”

Jeongyeon cringed at the burn. It was a lie, because many students admired and generally talked about the college's basketball players, but the joke was aimed at Jeongyeon's nervous actual person beneath the sweaty, toned basketball player persona.

“I’m kidding. But honestly, that bravado is hilarious. No one believes it, Jeongyeon.”

“Aww,” Jeongyeon pouted. “But people say confidence is attractive.”

“It is,” Mina said honestly, “but you know what _isn’t_ attractive? Delusion.”

Jeongyeon grabbed her stomach dramatically, as if stabbed by the dagger that kills Romeo. “Stop murdering me like this.”

“But that reminds me,” Mina cut in quickly as they got to the exit of the building, “I will actually have a shift at the kissing booth next week at the carnival. So tell your friends or something. It’s for charity.”

Momo began coughing again, this time hacking up a storm and sure she was going to die by Mina’s hands. Mina looked over at her, concerned, and Jeongyeon, ever the concerned friend, patted Momo’s back.

“Momo, did you only drink cold drinks today?” Jeongyeon asked. “You know it’s unhealthy.”

“No it’s just… the weather is cold and the air is dry,” Momo said in between coughs.

“Sure it is. Mina, if no one stops by during your shift, I think I could graciously find it in myself to stop by.”

Mina gave Jeongyeon her best shit-eating grin. “Sure.”

“Also, I thought you hadn’t had your first kiss yet?” Jeongyeon asked.

“O-oh. That. Yeah. I haven’t. I just thought I should get it over with arbitrarily, so this is sort of how I’m doing it. I’m just hoping that I’ll get better at kissing along the way so that people won’t try to get a refund,” Mina muttered, scratching the back of her head.

Jeongyeon laughed. “Okay. See you guys; I’ve got a ride home. Mina, update me on the weekend plans.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Right. Jeongyeon no longer lived in the dorms because her family had moved near to her college after her father set up a restaurant in the neighbourhood. It was hoity-toity business, and probably the fanciest place Momo had ever been invited to eat at. She often had nightmares about having to pay the bill at that specific Yoo restaurant.

“Are you okay?” Mina asked.

“Uh? Yes,” Momo nodded furiously. “It’s just cold and stuff.”

Mina nodded. “Okay, good. I’ve been feeling under the weather too, lately.”

Momo looked worried. “Is it because I made you stay up that one night, you missed your readings, and then you stayed up successive nights to complete them?”

“No,” Mina denied poorly and then gave up. “Yes. But it’s not your fault. I’m just… obsessive like that.”

“Jeongyeon’s right. You need a break.”

“Yeah, but I’m just not into big group gatherings like that,” Mina revealed. “They make me a little claustrophobic.”

“Hmm,” Momo hummed. “I get you.”

They strolled quietly in the cold until Mina shivered noticeably. Momo watched from the side of her line of sight, hands tucked into the pockets of her hoodie, and her hands moved to do _something_ , but didn’t know what exactly, so they simply spasmed in place and Mina blinked at her.

“You did well today,” Mina said.

“Thank you.”

“And it was all because of me,” Mina said, a teasing smirk appearing on her face.

“What are you saying?” Momo asked and then began rattling off a list of reasons as to why Mina should not make her her personal slave for the semester. “I’m not good at school and I don’t take your modules so I wouldn’t be helpful anyway.”

Mina grinned unabashedly. “Not _that_. I mean you should treat me to a meal. Perhaps this weekend.”

“But the cast outing-”

“I already made clear how I feel about that,” Mina said decisively, “and they forgot to explicitly invite you this late into rehearsals, so it wouldn’t be fun if I did decide to go anyway. And besides, you owe me one.”

“I-” Momo began to defend herself and ended up with nothing good. “You told Jeongyeon you’d try to go.”

Mina shivered again as they approached hostel grounds. On a terrible impulse, Momo’s hand shot out of its soft niche and grabbed Mina’s hand, finding it ice cold. She slipped her own and Mina’s hand into the single pocket of her hoodie. Her other hand’s knuckles were also brushing against Mina’s hand in the single pocket, but a beep coming from her bag meant that hand would now be both cold and occupied.

Momo hit the home button to stare at her notifications. The first one on the list was a text from Jeongyeon.

**[19:08] From: Yoo Jeongyeon**

_I know this is out of nowhere, but could you_ please _help talk Mina into showing up this weekend? Don’t tell anyone and especially not Nayeon because you know she would tease the bloody crap out of me but I… kinda… like Mina._

“Who’s that?” Mina asked.

“Just my… mother,” Momo said smoothly, dumping her phone back into her bag.

“So, what about this weekend?” Mina pressed eagerly. “Take me somewhere?”

Momo’s heart lurched and she smacked it back down.

“I know you don’t really do much but practise on the weekends,” Mina continued. “If you can say that I should take a break, you should know you need one too.”

“I-”

“No buts,” Mina finally said. “I’ll see you Saturday.”

 _I’m also very broke_ , Momo wanted to say, but she couldn’t vocalise anything in the face of a persistent Myoui Mina. Mina squeezed her hand that was in Momo’s, and Momo promptly remembered she was holding Mina’s hand in the pocket of her jacket and proceeded to have a mini seizure.

“I’m in the west wing,” Mina said, gesturing towards the hostel building they’d reached.

“Oh. I’m in the east.”

At that, Momo reluctantly loosened her grip on Mina’s hand. For a moment, Mina didn’t pull her hand out of the pocket. When she did, she gave Momo a meaningful look (what it meant Momo had no real clue) and waved and turned to disappear into her building.

Momo stared after her and also listened to about two more beeps from her phone in her bag. _Shit. Shit. Shit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How did I manage to continue this? No one knows. Will I continue writing chapters? No one knows either.
> 
> (Whoops sorry I forgot what tense I did this story in. If I'm not lazy I'll edit the chapter soon.)
> 
> (Also @nahyochaeng on Twitter I see you. Haha chat soon.)


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